Beer me that beer

Seems like there is interest in a thread to discuss beers we've tried.. though I'm starting it without any new beers freshly tried. Currently have an old standby, Jack's Abby - Hopponimus Union [IPL] and a solid local offering, Common Roots Last Light [IPA] in the fridge.

I'll drink almost anything, but I've definitely transitioned over the years from preferring Stouts & Browns to being a bit of a Hophead who dabbles in non-fruity sours [you can blame my wife for the hops and my Charleston Beerfest loving friend for the sours].

Are ciders fair game for this thread? I'm actually intolerant of something in beer (pretty sure it's the malt) such that it's like having food poisoning if I drink one, but I love me some fermented apple products.

If not, then my contribution to this thread is that I miss the hell out of Guinness.

Are ciders fair game for this thread? I'm actually intolerant of something in beer (pretty sure it's the malt) such that it's like having food poisoning if I drink one, but I love me some fermented apple products.

If not, then my contribution to this thread is that I miss the hell out of Guinness.

Fair game - the only cider I can recommend is Nine Pin [though I doubt they distribute to TX yet], as it's the only cider I've ever been able to finish a glass of.

In my area, craft beer week starts on Friday. I'm not looking forward to standing in line for 8-9 hours on Sunday for Great Taste of the Midwest tickets, but this will be off-set by people sharing their rare finds. I'll need to pack some homebrew for this year.

The big thing that makes me happy, beer-wise, is the re-release of Peruvian Morning. Bourbon barrel aged stout with coffee added. A local brewpub also released a 2014 barrel aged abby-style ale, which is pretty amazing. Only issue is that it's getting too warm for these sorts of beers.

Ooh, I like beer. I think I like beer more than I do whiskey. I'm not, however, generally a fan of darker beers. There are some I like, but I don't actively search them out.

While I do appreciate craft beers or "fancier" beers, I do have a soft spot for the common American cheaper beers. National Bohemian is a must when we get crabs, Yuengling is great for BBQing, etc etc.

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Are ciders fair game for this thread? I'm actually intolerant of something in beer (pretty sure it's the malt) such that it's like having food poisoning if I drink one, but I love me some fermented apple products.

I'm not big into ciders, I mean I'll drink them but I don't have a favorite or anything. I'd be interested in knowing your favorites, my wife would probably be interested.

I don't always drink beer but when I do I drink ales or stouts. Locally my go-to tends to be Smithwick's or Copperhead depending on where I am. Guinness is always a good go-to. Nothing pale, fruity* or overly carbonated.

*During the summer I relax this a bit because a good shandy is quite refreshing.

I'm not big into ciders, I mean I'll drink them but I don't have a favorite or anything. I'd be interested in knowing your favorites, my wife would probably be interested.

I have no idea their level of distribution, but there are a couple cider breweries in Austin, TX. Austin Eastciders and Argus Cidery. Also Shacksbury out of Vermont. I've been working my way through their stuff (it's all on the shelf at my local Whole Foods) and it's all been good so far. All of them are significantly drier than something like Angry Orchard or Woodchuck, which I prefer. Angry Orchard is my go-to when I'm out because just about everybody stocks it, but it's like drinking alcoholic apple juice. The drier ciders are more complex and IMO more worth drinking.

There's a trend this year for Rosé ciders and they're actually pretty darn good. My fiance is on her second 4-pack of the Shacksbury one. I'm finding that I'm a fan of anything with ginger in it--the Shacksbury Ginger Spritz is especially good. It's like an apple-based craft ginger beer. Just the right balance of spicy ginger and dry cider.

I'm not big into ciders, I mean I'll drink them but I don't have a favorite or anything. I'd be interested in knowing your favorites, my wife would probably be interested.

I have no idea their level of distribution, but there are a couple cider breweries in Austin, TX. Austin Eastciders and Argus Cidery. Also Shacksbury out of Vermont. I've been working my way through their stuff (it's all on the shelf at my local Whole Foods) and it's all been good so far. All of them are significantly drier than something like Angry Orchard or Woodchuck, which I prefer. Angry Orchard is my go-to when I'm out because just about everybody stocks it, but it's like drinking alcoholic apple juice. The drier ciders are more complex and IMO more worth drinking.

There's a trend this year for Rosé ciders and they're actually pretty darn good. My fiance is on her second 4-pack of the Shacksbury one. I'm finding that I'm a fan of anything with ginger in it--the Shacksbury Ginger Spritz is especially good. It's like an apple-based craft ginger beer. Just the right balance of spicy ginger and dry cider.

Hmm. I prefer malt-forward, British or Scottish-style ales over the OMG! HOPS! IPA/APAs that are currently trendy. I *do* like a good Belgian, too.

Having said that, the things I've had recently that I like bunches:

Two Roads: Road2Ruin Double IPA. A strong maltiness offsets the hoppy bitters. High ABV.Ommegang Abbey Doubel is what I think of as a near perfect abbey-style ale.Unibroue's "La Fin du Monde" I don't know if it ended the world, but it ended me. Tasty but knocks me on my ass for some reason.

In my area, craft beer week starts on Friday. I'm not looking forward to standing in line for 8-9 hours on Sunday for Great Taste of the Midwest tickets, but this will be off-set by people sharing their rare finds. I'll need to pack some homebrew for this year.

BAH! BAH I SAY! Ticket line is the greatest! I have two vacations that are locked in stone, Ticket Line, and Great Taste. I'm camping at Steve's on Mineral Point again, 14th year in a row! I do kind of miss when you could roll up at 11am, but we have a rollicking good time there.

I am looking forward to Craft Beer Week though. I'll be invading Madison Thursday and trying to outdrink all the natives.

I'll be at Steve's on University ave. My main issue is getting up so damn early. I know some people go to the Vintage, stay till closing time, then move it outdoors. I'm too old for that sort of thing.

Yes, the 2-3am wakeup was ridiculous. Hence camping overnight. I think there's a sturdy group of 70 or so of us that camp every year at Mineral Point (including a dozen or so of my friends that come up from Iowa with me). Much nicer to just fall asleep on an air mattress and wake up at 5, than try and drag myself out of bed at 2am.

For everyone else, rtrefz and I are talking about the Great Taste of the Midwest. The largest volunteer run beer festival in the world, now entering it's 35th year. Put on by the Madison homebrew club, 190+ of breweries in their designated "Midwest" area are invited, pouring 1400+ beers over 5 hours for the lucky 6000 that get tickets. I'm fairly comfortable saying it's the best beer enthusiast oriented beer festival in the country, 60 bucks gets you 5 hours of unlimited drinking from some of the best breweries in the country (and all the bigger left coast ones that can't come inside have taken over a bar somewhere in Madison that weekend to join the fun). Limited beers, cask conditioned things that are only made once, monster bacon on a stick. It's a blast. I've missed two since 1998, and I don't intend to miss any again.

And the guild really plans ahead re: getting to and from the event. There are free bus shuttles all over town (my wife and I use the bus stop at a nearby brewpub. Only a 6 block stumble from home), and there's $1 cab rides from the site. They really don't want anyone driving home!

Hmm. I prefer malt-forward, British or Scottish-style ales over the OMG! HOPS! IPA/APAs that are currently trendy. I *do* like a good Belgian, too.

Having said that, the things I've had recently that I like bunches:

Two Roads: Road2Ruin Double IPA. A strong maltiness offsets the hoppy bitters. High ABV.Ommegang Abbey Doubel is what I think of as a near perfect abbey-style ale.Unibroue's "La Fin du Monde" I don't know if it ended the world, but it ended me. Tasty but knocks me on my ass for some reason.

So, you’re in Vermont, practically the epicenter of IPAs that are awesome and not overly bitter, the New England style IPA . You should be in heaven.

We went up there last year in June and hit too many places to count. The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead are right up there. Hill Farmstead probably has as big s range of great beer as any brewery I’ve seen.

I do love some La Fin Du Monde though. We have a sixtel in our kegerator right now actually.

When I went to Montreal a while back, having local, cheap Unibroue was second only to the bagels when it came to high points of the trip.

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Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo is along that line too, tends to be less widely available, and much more expensive. Worth seeking out IMO.

My local pachakge store is very good at finding interesting, rate stuff. Normally, this is picking custom barrels of bourbon and the like, but they also do a good job with beer. I've had Yorkshire Stingo thanks to them, and yes, it's worth seeking out.

I need to find out if there are local beer tasting classes like there are wine tasting. Despite doing a bit of homebrewing, my knowledge of the ranges of beers is rather limited. I've got some of the primary colors of stouts, pilsners, lagers, porters down. I'd still like to be able to drill down further into the subcategories. Primarily just so when I make some of these beers, I can taste them and decide whether or not it's supposed to taste like that or not.

Then again, this being Seattle, it would likely just be a "here's a class on 57 varieties of IPA".

Edit: Hah, a quick search found me this course. But maybe something a little less involved than a once a week for 10 weeks/4 hour sessions.

La Fin Du Monde is an excellent beer, as is most of the beers made by Unibroue. I once had my fridge stocked with La Fin Du Monde, Trois Pistoles, Terrible, Don De Dieu, Maudite, and Ephemere Pomme. It was an interesting week.

Brought some bombers to a homebrew party once and was labeled the best "beer bringer".

My favorite was going to house parties, drinking directly out of one of their giant, cork-topped bombers, and having people look at me weird.

As for learning beer styles, IIRC, the joy of home brewing has a pretty good section on describing the different styles. Otherwise I recommend sampling different beers. Yuu'll eventually get a feel for it. I recommend focusing on the Belgium styles. This is a big world of difference from other beer styles.

I'm not big into ciders, I mean I'll drink them but I don't have a favorite or anything. I'd be interested in knowing your favorites, my wife would probably be interested.

I have no idea their level of distribution, but there are a couple cider breweries in Austin, TX. Austin Eastciders and Argus Cidery. Also Shacksbury out of Vermont. I've been working my way through their stuff (it's all on the shelf at my local Whole Foods) and it's all been good so far. All of them are significantly drier than something like Angry Orchard or Woodchuck, which I prefer. Angry Orchard is my go-to when I'm out because just about everybody stocks it, but it's like drinking alcoholic apple juice. The drier ciders are more complex and IMO more worth drinking.

There's a trend this year for Rosé ciders and they're actually pretty darn good. My fiance is on her second 4-pack of the Shacksbury one. I'm finding that I'm a fan of anything with ginger in it--the Shacksbury Ginger Spritz is especially good. It's like an apple-based craft ginger beer. Just the right balance of spicy ginger and dry cider.

Shacksbury is awesome, although haven't had the Ginger Spritz.

Argus is awesome, although tend to be a bit wilder/funkier, which I do like.

If you're on the West coast, Golden State Cider is quite good for an average day cider, Anthem is very good, although a touch sweet for me, 2 Towns has some great ciders as well.

More specialty ciders:

101 Cider House - wild fermentation, unfiltered, very funky, dry, some fun stuff it's made with that works well.Wandering Aengus - really good heirloom apples/cidersTin City Ciders - yummy yummy, most of their ciders are a tart and very dry, although the original hopped cider is just delicious and dryFoggy Ridge - great heirloom cidersSchilling - Generally very good, although some of them are a bit sweet for meReef Point - hard to find, quite dryDragon's Head - really goodTilted Shed - yes please, more pleaseDunkertons - proper English ciders, very goodSea Cider - high end, really goodFinn River - good, although not all to my paletteMission Trail - OMG great ciderSnow Drift - very goodAaron Burr - very good, expensive, including foraged apples from unmaintained orchards

I could go on and on.

There's a few Cider clubs I know of, one is Double Cider based on the West Coast, and The Cellar d'Or which is a wine/cider shop in Ithaca, NY.

I'm going to look for that. Old Fashioned is a common drink order of mine.

That's...interesting. I'd still avoid any Angry Orchard if at all possible, although if you make it to their actual tasting room they DO have some good heirloom style ciders you can only buy there. Had a friend get some, rather nice. Only thing nice about them, I think they're otherwise crap. If I want to drink very sweet cider I'll buy Ace Cider, which is at least of decent quality.

I'm fond of Sixpoint Resin, an IIPA. The first sip will probably taste like a pine tree to you but you'll oddly want a second sip and think it's pretty good. By the third sip it's sublime. Provided you like IPAs of course. Just don't drink it if you're doing any cooking requiring tasting as you go. It has a tendency to mess with the taste buds for an hour or two in the weirdest ways.

Hmm. I prefer malt-forward, British or Scottish-style ales over the OMG! HOPS! IPA/APAs that are currently trendy. I *do* like a good Belgian, too.

Having said that, the things I've had recently that I like bunches:

Two Roads: Road2Ruin Double IPA. A strong maltiness offsets the hoppy bitters. High ABV.Ommegang Abbey Doubel is what I think of as a near perfect abbey-style ale.Unibroue's "La Fin du Monde" I don't know if it ended the world, but it ended me. Tasty but knocks me on my ass for some reason.

So, you’re in Vermont, practically the epicenter of IPAs that are awesome and not overly bitter, the New England style IPA . You should be in heaven.

Oh, yes. I've been to Hill, and had one of their Barleywines, which was divine. Alchemist is a bit hard to get in my corner of the state; it just doesn't make it this far south. But Lawson's is everywhere now, Sip of Sunshine and Mosaic are both readily available on my commute home.

So something on hopped ciders, I don't do beer, but with cider since you aren't hearing it up you just get the lovely florals and clean taste from the hops, generally not any bitterness.

Disagree. My wife is a big cider and mead drinker and has gotten hopped stuff before unwillingly. I've tasted it and still get plenty of bitter out of them. But for all I know I might be super-sensitive to that compound?

Not all IBUs are the same. All it's doing is measuring the alpha acid content. An imperial stout can have IBU so high that the hop utilisation is very, very poor. Yet, due to the huge maltiness, it doesn't taste very bitter - They can even taste sweet! At the other end of the scale, a pale-only ale can have 10-15 IBU and taste only bitter, because there's nothing else there.

Bitterness is something like 20+ individual tastes, each with their own taste receptor, and it's perfectly possible to hate one sort of bitterness and like many others (tannins seems to be a very individual thing). Just because we've grouped them all together doesn't mean they're actually closely related, because they're not.

As for learning beer styles, IIRC, the joy of home brewing has a pretty good section on describing the different styles. Otherwise I recommend sampling different beers. Yuu'll eventually get a feel for it. I recommend focusing on the Belgium styles. This is a big world of difference from other beer styles.

Belgium style is big in Japan. This is one I tried recently is called "Wednesday's cat."

Spoiler: show

It's available in the US, but quite pricey here:

Spoiler: show

I had "Smithwick's Irish Ale" in Solvang last weekend. It might have been the timing of it, after a long day of driving the PCH up from Orange county, but it really hit the spot. Light and refreshing.

So something on hopped ciders, I don't do beer, but with cider since you aren't hearing it up you just get the lovely florals and clean taste from the hops, generally not any bitterness.

Disagree. My wife is a big cider and mead drinker and has gotten hopped stuff before unwillingly. I've tasted it and still get plenty of bitter out of them. But for all I know I might be super-sensitive to that compound?[/quote]

Hm, yea, generally I don't get that. Although I'll dump in an extra bunch of black tea and almost can't get enough of the tannins, at least not if I'm trying to wake up/stay awake.

Not all IBUs are the same. All it's doing is measuring the alpha acid content. An imperial stout can have IBU so high that the hop utilisation is very, very poor. Yet, due to the huge maltiness, it doesn't taste very bitter - They can even taste sweet! At the other end of the scale, a pale-only ale can have 10-15 IBU and taste only bitter, because there's nothing else there.

Bitterness is something like 20+ individual tastes, each with their own taste receptor, and it's perfectly possible to hate one sort of bitterness and like many others (tannins seems to be a very individual thing). Just because we've grouped them all together doesn't mean they're actually closely related, because they're not.

Interesting, that makes a lot of sense. I haven't done much research on hops, since I don't drink beer, but other than knowing there are different types that's about all I know.

I'm fond of Sixpoint Resin, an IIPA. The first sip will probably taste like a pine tree to you but you'll oddly want a second sip and think it's pretty good. By the third sip it's sublime. Provided you like IPAs of course. Just don't drink it if you're doing any cooking requiring tasting as you go. It has a tendency to mess with the taste buds for an hour or two in the weirdest ways.

This is one of my go to IIPA, thanks to it being available nearly everywhere. If you haven't tried it yet - pick up some Puff. It's a hazy Resin.

Also, you'd probably like Neshaminy Creek - The Shape of Hops to Come & Jacks Abby - Excess. Those are my other 'affordable' [~$11 for 4 pounders in my neck of the woods], go-to IIPA.

So something on hopped ciders, I don't do beer, but with cider since you aren't hearing it up you just get the lovely florals and clean taste from the hops, generally not any bitterness.

Disagree. My wife is a big cider and mead drinker and has gotten hopped stuff before unwillingly. I've tasted it and still get plenty of bitter out of them. But for all I know I might be super-sensitive to that compound?

Hm, yea, generally I don't get that. Although I'll dump in an extra bunch of black tea and almost can't get enough of the tannins, at least not if I'm trying to wake up/stay awake.

Not all IBUs are the same. All it's doing is measuring the alpha acid content. An imperial stout can have IBU so high that the hop utilisation is very, very poor. Yet, due to the huge maltiness, it doesn't taste very bitter - They can even taste sweet! At the other end of the scale, a pale-only ale can have 10-15 IBU and taste only bitter, because there's nothing else there.

Bitterness is something like 20+ individual tastes, each with their own taste receptor, and it's perfectly possible to hate one sort of bitterness and like many others (tannins seems to be a very individual thing). Just because we've grouped them all together doesn't mean they're actually closely related, because they're not.

Interesting, that makes a lot of sense. I haven't done much research on hops, since I don't drink beer, but other than knowing there are different types that's about all I know.

To further this, hopped anything requires hot water extraction of the oils from the hop cone, which is always going to pull some of the bittering compounds (as Hat noted the alpha acids). A hopped cider might not be boiled (but is almost assuredly being held at a temperature above 160F for pasteurization and protein break), but the hop tea (or CO2 injected extract) they add will have been boiled (or near boil, or even distilled) extracting those bittering units. One can do a lower temperature extraction, which brings more of the other floral compounds of the hop flavor while extracting fewer of the alpha acids, but you use hops you're getting some bittering. Again as Hat noted, you can balance this out through body/mouthfeel/sweetness to minimize or emphasize the impact. As well, whenever people talk about IPA = bitter they need to realize they're specifically referring to either the original British India Pale Ale (of which almost nobody makes in America) or the West Coast derivative (the flag bearer of which is probably Stone). There are at least five distinct styles of IPA commonly available/brewed in America (West Coast, New England, East Coast, Original, Midwestern) of which only two are noted for excessive bitterness. Heck, the last five or so years of hop farm development has specifically targeted everything BUT bitterness.

Are ciders fair game for this thread? I'm actually intolerant of something in beer (pretty sure it's the malt) such that it's like having food poisoning if I drink one, but I love me some fermented apple products.

If not, then my contribution to this thread is that I miss the hell out of Guinness.

Fair game - the only cider I can recommend is Nine Pin [though I doubt they distribute to TX yet], as it's the only cider I've ever been able to finish a glass of.

Yea, they better be.

I'm a fan of [urlhttp://www.woodchuck.com/]Woodchuck[/url] as a old standby (Amber and Semi-Dry)

So something on hopped ciders, I don't do beer, but with cider since you aren't hearing it up you just get the lovely florals and clean taste from the hops, generally not any bitterness.

Disagree. My wife is a big cider and mead drinker and has gotten hopped stuff before unwillingly. I've tasted it and still get plenty of bitter out of them. But for all I know I might be super-sensitive to that compound?

Hm, yea, generally I don't get that. Although I'll dump in an extra bunch of black tea and almost can't get enough of the tannins, at least not if I'm trying to wake up/stay awake.

Not all IBUs are the same. All it's doing is measuring the alpha acid content. An imperial stout can have IBU so high that the hop utilisation is very, very poor. Yet, due to the huge maltiness, it doesn't taste very bitter - They can even taste sweet! At the other end of the scale, a pale-only ale can have 10-15 IBU and taste only bitter, because there's nothing else there.

Bitterness is something like 20+ individual tastes, each with their own taste receptor, and it's perfectly possible to hate one sort of bitterness and like many others (tannins seems to be a very individual thing). Just because we've grouped them all together doesn't mean they're actually closely related, because they're not.

Interesting, that makes a lot of sense. I haven't done much research on hops, since I don't drink beer, but other than knowing there are different types that's about all I know.

To further this, hopped anything requires hot water extraction of the oils from the hop cone, which is always going to pull some of the bittering compounds (as Hat noted the alpha acids). A hopped cider might not be boiled (but is almost assuredly being held at a temperature above 160F for pasteurization and protein break), but the hop tea (or CO2 injected extract) they add will have been boiled (or near boil, or even distilled) extracting those bittering units. One can do a lower temperature extraction, which brings more of the other floral compounds of the hop flavor while extracting fewer of the alpha acids, but you use hops you're getting some bittering. Again as Hat noted, you can balance this out through body/mouthfeel/sweetness to minimize or emphasize the impact. As well, whenever people talk about IPA = bitter they need to realize they're specifically referring to either the original British India Pale Ale (of which almost nobody makes in America) or the West Coast derivative (the flag bearer of which is probably Stone). There are at least five distinct styles of IPA commonly available/brewed in America (West Coast, New England, East Coast, Original, Midwestern) of which only two are noted for excessive bitterness. Heck, the last five or so years of hop farm development has specifically targeted everything BUT bitterness.

And, at least in my experience, hops are added near the end for a drop hop (https://selfreliantschool.com/brew-dry-hopped-cider/) which doesn't extract the same oils as when heated. If you want to extract some of those, you can heat a portion of the cider with the hops, but I suspect most cider makers don't do that.

Are ciders fair game for this thread? I'm actually intolerant of something in beer (pretty sure it's the malt) such that it's like having food poisoning if I drink one, but I love me some fermented apple products.

If not, then my contribution to this thread is that I miss the hell out of Guinness.

Fair game - the only cider I can recommend is Nine Pin [though I doubt they distribute to TX yet], as it's the only cider I've ever been able to finish a glass of.

Yea, they better be.

I'm a fan of [urlhttp://www.woodchuck.com/]Woodchuck[/url] as a old standby (Amber and Semi-Dry)

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There's also a local winery that makes a pretty decent apple wine.

Personally still not a fan of Woodchuck either. Better than Angry Orchard though, at least.

The trend I'm NOT a fan of us the Cider Ale's. Basically it's a way to make a "cider" but it gets put into a different tax category.

My favorite beer is Anchor's Liberty Ale, though I am still slightly sore they shrunk the glass bottles from 12oz to 11.something. That's a lame move for a $10 six pack.That said, it is the best. They also have "Liberty IPA" which honestly is nearly identical.Being on the East Coast I don't get to have any Anchor on tap often, and if I do it is only the Anchor Steam. That's a good beer, I'm sure, but it's nothing I would go out of my way for or seek out.Anyone know beers of a similar deliciousness to the Liberty Ale?